A major work by a brilliant young biographer, Muckraker details the tenacity and verve of one of Victorian Britain's most compelling characters. Credited with pioneering investigative reporting, W. T. Stead made a career of 'muckraking': revealing horrific practices in the hope of shocking authorities into reform. As the editor of the Northern Echo, he won the admiration of the Liberal statesman William Gladstone for his fierce denunciation of the Conservative government; at the helm of London's most ininfuential evening paper, the Pall Mall Gazette, he launched the career-defining Maiden Tribute campaign. To expose the scandal of child prostitution, Stead abducted thirteen-year-old Eliza Armstrong (thought by many to be the inspiration behind Eliza Doolittle, from friend George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion), thrusting him into a life of notoriety. Labelled a madman in later life for dabbling in the occult, W. T. Stead conducted his life with an invincible zeal right up until his tragic demise aboard the Titanic. Revealing a man full of curious eccentricities, W. Sydney Robinson charts the remarkable rise and fall of a true Fleet Street legend in this enthralling biography.

This book draws together essays on modern British history, empire, liberalism and conservatism in honour of Trevor O. Lloyd, Emeritus Professor of Modern British history at the University of Toronto for some thirty years beginning in the 1960s. With Lloyd best known for his two histories of the Empire and of domestic Britain, published in the Short Oxford History of the Modern World series, as well as his pioneering psephological study of the 1880 General Election, the essays include analyses of Anglo-Irish relations, Florence Nightingale, Canada, muckrackers, the Primrose League and prisoners of war during World War II.

This book explores Bernard Shaw’s journalism from the mid-1880s through the Great War—a period in which Shaw contributed some of the most powerful and socially relevant journalism the western world has experienced. In approaching Shaw’s journalism, the promoter and abuser of the New Journalism, W. T. Stead, is contrasted to Shaw, as Shaw countered the sensational news copy Stead and his disciples generated. To understand Shaw’s brand of New Journalism, his responses to the popular press’ portrayals of high profile historical crises are examined, while other examples prompting Shaw’s journalism over the period are cited for depth: the 1888 Whitechapel murders, the 1890-91 O’Shea divorce scandal that fell Charles Stewart Parnell, peace crusades within militarism, the catastrophic Titanic sinking, and the Great War. Through Shaw’s journalism that undermined the popular press’ shock efforts that prevented rational thought, Shaw endeavored to promote clear thinking through the immediacy of his critical journalism. Arguably, Shaw saved the free press.

In November 1885 Victorian England was scandalised by a court case which lifted the veil on prostitution and the sex trade. In the Old Bailey dock was the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, which had recently published a series of articles on the sex trade; a reformed brothel keeper; and the second-in-command of The Salvation Army, Bramwell Booth. The group was accused of abducting a 13 year old girl, Eliza Armstrong. The group had set up the scheme to expose the trade in young girls. The resulting scandal triggered a massive petition and the raising of the Age of Consent from 13 to 16. Many MPs and other men in positions of power were furious, and the campaigners were indicted under the 1861 Abduction Act. Booth would be acquitted, but others went to prison, martyrs for justice. The Armstrong Girl is the story of that scandal, and of the Christians who fought for this essential change in the law.

The exact legacies of the two Hague Peace Conferences remain unclear. On the one hand, diplomatic and military historians, who cast their gaze to 1914, traditionally dismiss the events of 1899 and 1907 as insignificant footnotes on the path to the First World War. On the other, experts in international law posit that The Hague’s foremost legacy lies in the manner in which the conferences progressed the law of war and the concept and application of international justice. This volume brings together some of the latest scholarship on the legacies of the Hague Peace Conferences in a comprehensive volume, drawing together an international team of contributors.?

Talk of me sometimes. Speak well of me. Actors live on only in the memory of others. Speak well of me.’ The Dresser, Act Two Ronald Harwood is one of the foremost playwrights and screenplay writers alive today. He has won an Oscar for his adaptation of The Pianist, a BAFTA for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and has been celebrated in the theatre for his classic play, The Dresser, which has been adapted for both television and cinema – most recently in a BBC production starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins. His life has been one of adventure and achievement. He was born Ronald Horwitz, the youngest child of a poor South African couple, Ike and Bella, originally from Lithuania and East London respectively. After developing a love of the West End through inspirational teachers and battered copies of a magazine called Theatre World of an interview at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1951. Subsequently he joined the theatre company of the famous actor-manager Donald Wolfit, who would later provide the inspiration for the central character of The Dresser This book is not only aimed at lovers of cinema and theatre, but also readers who are interested in the human struggle of a man who has overcome great obstacles to achieve success in his chosen field. It explores some of the moral dilemmas which Harwood has faced in his own lifetime, from the guilt of having accepted the apartheid system while growing up in South Africa to his decision to collaborate on two occasions with the controversial film director Roman Polanski. Speak Well of Me is a biography based on a series of interviews with Ronald Harwood, as well as extensive study of his press-cuttings and personal papers. Many of his contemporaries, including Tom Stoppard, Arnold Wesker, Antonia Fraser, Tom Courtenay and Antony Sher have also shared their memories with the author.